Many users of high-end smartphones are keeping older models and opting for refurbished phones over expensive new ones, which has the potential to draw down Apple and Samsung's hardware sales volumes in the future, if trends continue.

In a promotional interview published on the iOS App Store, the one of the creators of MoviePass -- a subscription service that lets people see a 2D movie every day -- suggested that the Apple iPhone and mobile apps in general were instrumental in getting it off the ground.

This year's Mobile World Congress has served as a reminder of how much influence Apple has over the smartphone market, with some companies choosing to design their devices with the iPhone X's novel but controversial 'notch' firmly in mind.

Even though Apple's iPhone battery replacement discounts are no longer in the news, and the company has theoretically had time to ramp up supply, wait times for replacements have actually worsened in the past few weeks, according to Barclays research.

The Samsung Galaxy S9 has a slower processor than the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X, according to early benchmarks of Samsung's new device, after tests of the Android smartphone's Exynos 9810 chip reveal it to lag far behind the Apple-created A10 and A11 processors.

Cellebrite, the Israeli security firm believed to have helped the FBI unlock an iPhone during the San Bernardino investigation, is claiming it is capable of bypassing the security of devices running iOS 11 and older versions, including recently launched hardware including the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.

More rumors are circulating that Apple is planning a trio of iPhones in the fall of 2018, with one the largest ever produced by the company, and all three incorporating Face ID authentication technology.

For decades, market research firms have been confidently asserting that the "winners" in PCs, tablets, smartphones and other consumer electronics are not firms that are profitable or even sustainable, but merely those shipping the largest volumes at any given time. This has enabled them to crown a successive line of failed players, then rapidly move on to a new "winner," often within the same year. The bigger problem for this sort of flawgic is that the game itself is changing.